Non-Catholic Institution Could Buy St. Joseph Medical Center
TOWSON, Md. (AP) -- A financially troubled Catholic hospital in Towson may end up being purchased by a hospital system that doesn't follow its Catholic beliefs.
St. Joseph Medical Center is for sale after a surgical scandal that hurt its reputation and finances. Two of the three possible buyers are not Catholic institutions, which typically don't offer services like abortion, sterilization and invitro fertilization.
St. Joseph's officials tell The Baltimore Sun that the suitors have agreed to honor the hospital's "Catholic identity." But they declined to elaborate on what that means.
Cardinal Edwin O'Brien, the archbishop of Baltimore, has argued that St. Joseph's should be bought by another Catholic institution.
A spokesman would not comment on whether O'Brien would shoot down a merger with a non-Catholic hospital.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
